


Change

by theDeadTree



Series: Scott Ryder [3]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-15 22:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10558946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theDeadTree/pseuds/theDeadTree
Summary: Andromeda had changed Scott. More than he was aware.





	

Scott had never really been one to hover, before they left. He preferred to leave people to their own devices, and be left to his. After he enlisted and was subsequently packed off to guard a mass relay, Sara could go weeks, even months, without seeing him. Occasionally he’d call, but only if there was pressing news. It had never bothered her much – at least, not until Mom got sick and Dad was dishonourably discharged and both she and Scott were summarily dismissed from the Alliance. Scott had disappeared after that, failing to make any contact at all for what had felt like an agonising eternity. When he finally resurfaced, it had been in a less than stellar condition. Dad hadn’t been impressed, but Scott wasn’t having it.

There had been a lot of yelling that week.

Sara shook her head slightly and tried to put any thought of their lives in the Milky Way behind. It was done, they were gone and never coming back. That part of their lives was well and truly over. As evidenced by just how much of a fretful mother hen her usually laid-back brother had become.

He seemed to pass by the med-bay to check on her every few days. He’d constantly call, asking for updates, and generally harassing Harry into giving a full run-down of every aspect of Sara’s condition until her patience ran out and she stole the comm just to angrily demand he quit being so overbearing. Then he’d sheepishly apologise, claiming he only wanted to make sure she was okay. Then she’d see him probably the next day, insisting he had important Pathfinder business to take care of on the Nexus, and just thought he’d check up on her while he was passing through.

Sara didn’t buy it. Sure, he was on the Nexus a lot, and _sure,_ people were constantly demanding his attention, but they both knew that half of the urgent appointments he had to keep, weren’t. He had more important things to do, and everyone knew it. Didn’t stop him from using any excuse he could find to return the Hyperion’s med-bay. And worst of all – she was the only one who was surprised by this behaviour. Harry had told her that Scott had been in and out of the med-bay for pretty much the entire time she was unconscious, so his presence was something practically expected.

It was so unlike the Scott she knew. She was starting to get to a point where she wanted to grab him and shake him down, demanding to know who he was and what he’d done with the _real_ Scott Ryder.

“Your brother’s coming,” Harry called to her suddenly, his eyes never leaving that datapad in his hand.

Sara let out an exhausted groan and practically fell back against the bed, glancing up at the ceiling she’d become so well acquainted with since waking up.

“Of _course_ he is,” she muttered irritably.

“Hey now,” Harry chided her, still not looking at her. “He just wants to make sure you’re okay.”

Sara elected to ignore that. She didn’t need Harry to justify Scott’s behaviour to her – she could do that herself just fine if she stopped to think about everything that had happened. Had their places been reversed, she was sure she’d be doing the same. Possibly she’d be worse. But she’d be justified, because Scott was younger. Just barely, yes, by all of one minute, but he was still _younger._

She was allowed to be annoying and overprotective towards him. It was just _weird_ when he did it back.

Andromeda had changed him, she noted. More than he was aware. Every time he walked into the med-bay, she noticed little things, tiny changes, shifts in his demeanour, in the way he spoke, how he held himself, how he interacted with the people around him. He was quieter, a bit more logical, a bit more willing to wait things out. He was slower to joke. When he did, his tone was distinctly more bitter.

But she supposed being Pathfinder would do that to a person. Among other things.

She hadn’t been there when Dad died. Part of her was almost grateful for it – but she couldn’t rid herself of the questions that plagued her. What if she _had_ been there? Would it have still gone the same way? Maybe she could’ve done something. Maybe she could’ve saved him. At the very least, she could’ve been there for her brother afterwards, could’ve done something to prevent the inevitable downward spiral of depression he’d plunge into, convincing himself that it was his fault, that _everything_ was _always_ his fault.

Too late to do anything about it now, she supposed. Scott seemed to be doing fine without her anyway.

Almost the instant this thought crossed her mind, the med-bay door slid open, revealing – to absolutely no one’s surprise – Scott himself. Automatically, his gaze slid to her, a relieved smile pulling at his lips when he saw her there, sitting up and waiting for him, still conscious.

“Sara,” he called, almost stumbling over his own feet in his haste to get to her.

She gave him a wry smile and a small wave. “Hey Scott.”


End file.
